Set Fire To The Rain
by LittletonPace
Summary: *sequel to Crusader* Abby and Bobby's lives intertwine again...
1. Colours of Numbers

_This is a sequel fic to my first Criminal Intent story including my OC Abby, Crusader. That story details how Bobby and Abby met and all their initial details. So give that a read if you want some back story on them, if not then just read on here and enjoy :)_

**Chapter 1: Colours of Numbers  
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Goren didn't believe in coincidence, or leaving things to chance, he liked statistics and facts. So, statistically, if he walked the street Abby lived on as a shortcut to get a taxi to the courthouse, it was to be expected that he might run into Abby one day. That was, of course, if she hadn't moved back to Australia. At least, that's where Bobby thought she was, but on the warm day that he took that shortcut, he heard her voice. Her distinctive voice coming from the small park beside her apartment building.

"Theo, stop staring up at the sun!" Abby was calling to a little boy whose head was tilted straight up. Theo giggled when Abby called to him, and went back to running up and down the slide.

"Abby?" Bobby stood by the gate, squinting in the sunlight to get a better look at her. It was Abby, alright. He never forgot a face.

Abby turned, revealing a small baby in her lap, and when she saw who it was who called her, she looked pleasantly surprised. "Detective Bobby!" She beamed. "What are you doing out here?"

"I have to be in court," Bobby replied with a grin, realizing he was quite happy to see her and wishing he wasn't running late so he could stay and talk. He'd forgotten how he enjoyed talking to her, how he enjoyed her frank honesty. "What about you?" He eyed the baby sucking her thumb on Abby's lap. "Nannying?"

"No," Abby rose to her feet and adjusted the infant in her arms. "Just babysitting, these are my neighbours kids, she's got a bad flu."

Bobby's phone buzzed in his pocket. He knew it was Carver before he opened it because the lawyer had been messaging him nonstop all morning reminding him of the questions he was going to ask him on the stand. Bobby already knew them backwards, it was just the end of a long case that Carver was anxious to finish. "I, ah, I have to run," Bobby said, his mind flush with questions he wanted to ask Abby. "But will you meet me for a cup of coffee?"

Abby seemed taken aback, but tried to be nonchalant. "Sure," she pointed across the street to her local coffee shop. "How about there? Tomorrow for lunch?"

"Great," Goren said, his phone ringing again. "I gotta go, see you tomorrow." And he went off to court, his mood elevated a couple of levels about his prospects for the next day.

* * *

><p>Over coffee the following lunch, Bobby was able to pepper Abby with the questions he'd been pondering since his run in with her. "You're still here, I thought you were headed back to Australia?"<p>

"I was," Abby added sugar to her coffee. "I was organizing to go back to university in Melbourne and found out I could transfer my degree to NYU and get credit for the work I've done. In a year, I'll have my computer science degree here."

"So you're back to computer science?" Bobby nodded with approval, Abby had a degree in computer science back in Australia but had been offered a position as a nanny for a wealthy New York couple with a young son; too good an opportunity to pass up.

"Yeah, actually after everything that happened with the Walkers, I've been looking into computer forensics."

Bobby raised his eyebrows. "Fighting online crime?"

"No," Abby smirked. "More like being paid to hack into people's computers and decoding loads of random nonsense. Fun."

"Do you keep in touch with John Walker?"

"Yes and no," Abby sipped her coffee. "He sends me emails on Matty, he's three and a half now it's crazy," she smiled, clearly still bonded with the young boy she'd taken care of for so long. "But John's not working so much anymore, and he says he doesn't have any staff helping him. So that's good for Matty. Leila's never going to see the light of day again," she shrugged. "So he deserves some consistency."

Bobby nodded, he'd been in the courtroom when Leila Walker had been sentenced for the murders of her maid and butler. Since Abby's near-death by poisoning couldn't be attributed to Leila (because Nicole Wallace had decided to inject herself into Bobby's life again making him think it was her who had done the poisoning), Abby wasn't required to appear in court.

"Your brother still here?" Bobby asked. He'd only met Ben Mackenzie once, but he seemed to be a nice guy and he and Abby were close.

"Yeah he is. In fact, he and Kayla are having another baby." Abby said excitedly. "Their third. And I missed the births of the first two, so it'll be nice to be around to help out. It's probably the main reason I chose to stay in the city..."

She spoke about her family with obvious compassion, it was a trait about her Bobby had admired from the moment he had met her almost a year before. She had a big heart, and a warm smile. She'd had both when he'd met her Her hair was honey-blonde but still wavy and dusting her shoulders as it had been before. Everything about her was the same as he remembered, but without the cloud of a homicide looming over her. Bobby was noticing her in a different way. And not just through a detective's eyes.

"You know, you'll probably think that I'm flirting with you, but you have very distinctive eyes." He said honestly. He saw a lot of a someone's personality in the way they held their eyes. "It's your smile, it's in your eyes."

She seemed to bite her lip to keep from smiling wider. "Well," she blushed and tried to cover it with a crooked smirk. "You're cute, too." She made a face like she was saying it just to tease him. But, as well as seeing her personality through her eyes, Bobby also noticed the expression of her reaction was not only genuine, but mutual.

* * *

><p>Abby stepped out on the level of the major case squad feeling that same rush of anxiety at being in this building again. Her first time there she'd been a suspect, and then collapsed and almost died. It wasn't her favourite place in the world, but any opportunity to hack computers for money was good by her.<p>

When Bobby had called her the following Tuesday night after their coffee, the last thing she expected him to ask her was for her help. Her _computer_ help. Bobby explained that he and his partner, Alex Eames, were working on a case and their usual computer guy had been admitted to hospital for emergency surgery to remove his appendix.

So, on short notice at six o'clock in the evening with no pressing engagements other than a new episode of _Survivor_, Abby took a cab to the major case building. Goren met Abby at the elevator and handed her a plastic ID tag.

"Temporary consultant," Abby said reading the label as she slipped it into the pocket of her jeans. "Can I keep this?"

"We'll see," Goren directed her towards the interview room where Eames and Captain Deakins were mulling over a pinboard covered in printouts.

The squad room was as empty as Abby had ever seen it, but she'd only been there during the day when detectives were rushing around. Now, only a few officers dotted the floor, working quietly at their desks. Most of the lights were off shrouding the room in shadows. It definitely lacked the imposing quality it had had on Abby in her previous visits, now it kind of reminded her of a high school after hours.

"Ms Mackenzie?" Deakins offered his hand to Abby as she came into the interview room. "Good to see you again, thanks for coming on such short notice."

"Oh, it's no trouble." She assured the handsome Chief of Detectives, smiling a hello to Detective Eames. "And call me Abby..." her eyes flicked to the pinboard as Deakins retreated to his office to leave them to work. "This is a mess, why are they backwards?"

Goren raised his eyebrows at her. "Backwards?"

"Yeah," Abby approached the board and started to rearrange the printouts. "See this?" She tapped the random mess of numerals in the corner of each piece of paper. "They're gibberish-y page numbers. Letters written in their numeric form." She starting pinning them in proper order. "One is 15-14-5, two is 20-23-15."

"So then this one is three," Goren spoke up pointing to the printout on the bottom left corner. "20-8-18-5-5."

Abby nodded and let him pin it in place. "It's not the hardest code to solve if you know what you're looking for." Truth was, it was often overlooked by people searching way too hard to solve what they perceived to be an intricate, unreadable code, rather than recognizing it was a simple transference of letters into numbers. It didn't surprise her that Bobby, who was easily the most intelligent man she'd ever met, hadn't caught it. Though she did suspect he would have soon enough.

"It's from a teenage boys' computer," Eames told her. "Is this something he would be able to implement?"

"Yeah," Abby nodded. "There are a bunch of programs on the internet that'll jumble up numbers for you that kids turn into a code so their birthday turns into a weird word like _TESGA_, or something, and then they use that as a password."

"And here I was trying to think of his first pet's name," Eames cell phone rang, so she left the room to take the call.

"You learn this at NYU?" Bobby asked Abby as she continued to inspect the printouts.

"Not exactly," Abby shook her head. "About a month ago, I went to a seminar that dealt with social media and genetic coding kinda like this. Three hours," she rolled her eyes. "But I guess it stuck."

"It's impressive."

"Not really." Abby shrugged. "It's common computer science knowledge. Or so I'm finding out. It was what made me wanna go back to university. Everything I'd learned was updated; there were faster ways to do everything and I wanted to know how. There are seminars all over the city that seem to delight in telling us everything we learned the month before is now obsolete..." she trailed off as she noticed a number pattern repeating on the printouts.

"What?" Bobby asked, seeing her attention sharpen.

"This number?" Abby circled _0b100101_ which appeared at least once on each page. "It's a prefix that indicates programming a language. So, all of this?" she gestured to the wall of printouts. "Is probably not in English. So if you _do_ translate it into English, you'll get a bunch of letters that make no sense."

"Any idea what language?"

"No, but you're the detective," she pointed out, smirking. "So _detect_ what language it is."

He smiled at her, holding his eyes in line with her own for an extended moment. "Tesga," he said. "Your birthday... May 20, 1971?"

Abby nodded, again unsurprised he had figured it out. "Yeah, the Australian way. The 20th of the fifth, the _day_ before the month, because for some weird reason you people decided to put the _month_ before the day."

"French," Eames announced as she came back into the room. "This kid and the victim both took a French tutoring class." Eames pointed to the printouts. "If you know the language, you can decipher that?"

"With the right computer and programme," Abby said. "Your tech people could do it."

Goren shared a knowing look with his partner, who nodded, and then turned back to Abby. "Do you need a job?"

**xxx**


	2. The Way We Do Things

**Chapter 2: The Way We Do Things**

Abby had never adjusted to jobs very well in her life, so when she'd taken to becoming a nanny quite easily it had surprised her, and she considered it a one-off. And then she started working in the IT department of the police station and, again, she was surprised that she adjusted much sooner than she thought she would.

Perhaps it was the job in itself. The IT department was segmented into areas, and small groups of them catered to certain branches of the police department so things weren't all mixed together. Abby worked with the Major Case sector, and specifically worked with cases involving computer evidence. Her job had exciting moments: she'd get to recover information from a damaged hard drive, or find critical files thought to be hidden away in cyberspace; but generally she spent most days tracing emails, identifying IP addresses and fixing various computer problems of the detectives upstairs.

All in all, it was easy to get into the swing of things. And Abby really enjoyed the trio she worked with. Her boss was Mark, a very laid back guy who often napped in his desk chair. He had been promoted since he had been at the precinct the longest, but he didn't take his position too seriously. He and Abby spent good quantities of the day playing around; he reminded her of her brother. His work philosophy was something along the lines of "_if the work is done well, doesn't matter how much fun you have getting the results_."

Then there was Avery. Very straight-laced girl, addicted to her computer, knew codes without having to double check them, a human computer. Abby didn't really know a lot about her. She was nice and friendly; just very shy and quiet. But Abby often saw the young woman smiling to herself when Mark said something funny, and had a feeling she harboured a crush on him.

The only guy Abby didn't care much for was Jason. As far as Abby could tell, he was a know-it-all who was keeping his job because there wasn't exactly a line out the door for IT technicians. He did his work, but not without explaining to everyone who would listen how he got to the result as if waiting for a round of applause or something just as ego-pleasing.

But the thing that excited Abby most about her new job was her office. Of the four people who worked in this area, she was the only one who had an office that included a door. Given the option of having a large space with divider walls like everyone else or the cramped box with a door, Abby didn't even have to think before she chose her "office". It didn't have any windows, every wall was painted a different shade of gray, the door didn't shut properly, the overhead light hummed, and it was so small her desk had to be jammed in sideways and the easiest way for her to get out of there was to slide over the desk instead of wedging herself against the wall; but it was hers. And she loved it.

So when Bobby came to visit her for the first time a month or so after she started working there, it was the first place she showed him. And she showed it with pride. "Welcome to my office," Abby said proudly scooting up onto her desk. "I have an office! I've never had an office before."

"I don't even get an office," Bobby said admiring her name on the office door. It had been written on with red marker and had lewd, silly drawings all around it.

"No, but you get a gun," Abby pointed out.

"Abby," Mark hovered in her doorway. "Where's my good pen this time?"

"You don't have a good pen."

"The green one with the thing on it," Mark said narrowing his eyes at her. "I know you stole it."

"Lies," Abby flicked her eyes to Bobby. "And I have a guest," she told Mark. "So be gone from my office."

Mark bowed his head, and slowly backed away to answer the ringing phone. From under her desk Abby pulled the green pen from its hiding place on the little ledge under there and showed it to Bobby. "I steal it daily, whenever he leaves it unmanned," she hid the pen again before anyone else saw. "And then I put it on his desk at the end of the day with a note telling him how much it missed him."

"Fun," Bobby folded his arms and smiled. "How do you get work done with all this fun?"

Giving him a withering look, Abby slid off her desk and went out into the main room. "We have fun to get work done," Abby recited leading him over to the clunky printer. For some reason, the IT department was subjected to an ancient printer that sounded like a car backfiring every time it produced a printout. "Here you go," she handed the paper to Bobby. "I could have brought this up to you, you know."

"I've been meaning to check out your new _office_," Bobby said scanning the printout. "It's a good walk anyway."

"Well, next time you come bring good coffee," Abby hit one of the warning buttons on the printer that beeped constantly for no apparent reason. "The stuff down here sucks."

Goren stepped away from her as though he was about to leave, but then stepped back. "Did you hear about the benefit the Captain is holding next month?"

"Yeah, Mark got an invite," Abby said, her boss smiling proudly. "Apparently Heads of Department all got one," she paused and raised an eyebrow to the detective. "Why?"

* * *

><p>The benefit was a success in all areas. Deakins made a lot of money for the Widows &amp; Children's charity that financially cared for the families of officers killed on duty. And for Bobby, it turned into a fun night with Abby. She'd looked beautiful, dressed in a maroon evening gown she said she'd borrowed from her sister-in-law. Goren hadn't seen her in that way before, so elegant and refined. And then she would say something, an Australian colloquialism that he wouldn't completely understand, and she'd instantly become the Abby he'd gotten to know since she started working at the station. His friend, Abby.<p>

Without the cloud of a murder investigation over her as she'd had the year before with the Walkers, Abby was just fun for Bobby to be with at the benefit. They danced together, mingled together, and at the end of the night he took her back to her apartment where she kissed his cheek and told him she'd see him the next day at work.

She liked him, he knew she did. Always upfront with her thoughts, Abby was seemingly unconsciously upfront with her inner desires. The way she her voice changed when she answered her phone and realized it was Goren on the line, the little flicker in her eyes when he went down to the IT department to see her, the thin-lipped smile she gave him when she was trying not to look flattered. They were all signs to Bobby, good signs he intended on exploring.

But the universe had a road bump in store for Goren before he could even consider anything with Abby. The same bump that had reared her head when Abby was a suspect the year before. Nicole Wallace.

The case was different this time, nothing to do with Abby and everything to do with Nicole and a young woman, Ella, whom Nicole was grooming as a protégé as well as using her as a lover. A string of larcenies were attributed to Ella, but Goren knew that Nicole was the ringleader behind it. Of course, as always with Nicole, there was no proof. Only his speculation.

They had found Nicole again through her ex-husband. And, after Ella was arrested, Nicole arrived at the Major Case squad herself to defend her lover. Once again, Bobby found himself face to face with her. Murderous Nicole with her sparkling eyes and megawatt smile. Nicole, who looked like a sweetheart, but who Bobby knew had a deep, angered darkness churning inside her.

After answering Goren's initial questions about Ella, and about her involvement with the girl, Nicole narrowed the conversation down to just herself and to Bobby. "I didn't come here to engage you," she said. "I want a truce, Bobby."

"A truce," Goren repeated, searching her eyes for a hint what she was really asking for. "That's not in your nature."

Nicole smirked. "Notwithstanding your unrelenting pursuit of evil."

"Evil, Nicole, is also unrelenting in its pursuits." Goren said evenly. "Your ex-husband, who actually loved you, he knew enough to step away from you."

Nicole didn't seem fazed at his attempt to provoke her. "We divorced for reasons familiar to many couples."

"Because you couldn't bear children?"

Nicole's left eyebrow twitched for barely a millisecond. "Is that what he told you?" she asked casually, shaking out out her hair. "Obviously, I need to remind him that our divorce agreement has a confidentiality clause-"

And then any sign that she might have been even remotely unsteady disappeared, and Nicole's triumphant grin returned as through the interview room window she spotted someone threading through the desks out in the squad room. "Well, well, well... now there's a face I didn't expect to see." Smirking, Nicole tilted her head to the side and rounded her eyes back on the detective. "So Abby works here now, Bobby? Was that your idea?"

"Ella's being taking down for arraignment," Goren continued, letting her jabs at him pass right by.

"She's beautiful, Bobby," Nicole smiled sweetly, and she held her tongue between her teeth. "And," her smile broadened, and she seductively bit her lower lip. "You can actually _have_ this one. Tell me, do you think of me when you think of her? Pretty, little Australian girl who has a crush on the quirky Detective Bobby," she pouted. "Only this time without _our_ unfortunate history..." she leant towards him, lowering her voice. "How much does she know about us, Bobby? How much did you tell her?"

"There is no us, Nicole," Bobby said as he rose to his feet. "And you're one of a kind."

Nicole smiled at the compliment. "I know how you think of me, but it's always nice to hear it." Standing, she looped her handbag over her shoulder, gave Goren a pleasant grin and let herself out of the interview room.

Watching her carefully, Goren saw her stop and comfort Ella who was being led away in cuffs, but he also watched Abby. She was across the room, trying to explain something on a computer to one of the older detectives, and she didn't seem to have noticed Nicole at all.

They had no history, Bobby told himself. It was a game, a game of Nicole's, to make him think Abby wasn't trustworthy, when in fact he believed she was. And through no fault or actions of her own, Abby was being pegged as deceitful by a woman she'd never even met.

**xxx**


	3. One Second

**Chapter 3: One Second**

Nicole slipped through Bobby's fingers again with more murders behind her that he knew she'd committed, but couldn't prove. She faked her own death and murdered Ella, and then she was gone. Bobby imagined she obtained great pleasure knowing that she'd outsmarted him. The same pleasure she got from asking him questions about his mother, and from referring to herself and Abby in the same sentence. He was almost ashamed that he knew Nicole well enough to know that she was trying to make him think of her when he thought of Abby. Trying to force a connection where there wasn't one. But he wouldn't let Nicole win that easily.

A month or so after Nicole's supposed death when everything had fallen back into its normal swing of things, Goren asked Abby to lunch and she accepted. Her eye got that little glint in it when she was surprised, which made Bobby more confident. It was a matter of facts. Abby liked him, he liked Abby, a date would either confirm their friendship or establish something more. And Bobby was eager to see which way it would go.

It was with Eames blessing that he'd taken the long walk down to the IT department to ask Abby out. His partner only affirmed what he himself believed about Nicole, that any connection to Abby was merely a plot of Nicole's designed to eat away at Bobby so he would never be certain what was what. It was a game, and one Bobby refused to play. His life had nothing to do with Nicole, and the choices he made reflected that.

And the truth was he had wanted to ask Abby out for a very long while but it had just never been the right time. Even though they worked in the same building, days would go by when he wouldn't see her. And every time she came up to visit or to drop off results, a bell would go off in Bobby's head warning him to ask her out now, ask her while things were calm and when she was at ease. Ask her before something came along and got in the way again.

It was a Thursday when Bobby and Abby took their lunch-break together as planned. They wandered to a deli near the precinct that was relatively empty for a lunch time, a fact that Abby noted didn't sing high praises for the food. "In retrospect," Bobby commented as they sat down at a booth and were served coffee by a pleasant but tired looking waitress. "Not the grandest place for a lunch date."

"Lunch date?" Abby repeated. "Are we on a lunch date?"

"Yeah," Goren confirmed boldly. "Might even call it our first date."

"Well, no," Abby smirked, but didn't react negatively to his statement. "Our first date has to have been the benefit. It was so much fancier."

"But we had lunch before that," Bobby reminded her of the day they met all over again, when he'd thought she'd long since left the country but was, in fact, still in his city. "When I saw you babysitting by your apartment building."

"Come _on_," Abby smothered a wry grin with her coffee cup before she replied. "If you're gonna go back that far why not call our first date the drink you brought me the first time I was in the interview room?"

"Okay," Bobby smiled. "Then maybe we should have a proper first date Saturday night." he suggested, encouraged by the way she was leaning her elbows on the table towards him, engaging him and not withdrawing from him. "That way we'll always know when it was."

An innocently nervous smile slowly spread across Abby's lips, and that little glint flashed in her eye. "Yeah, course, sounds great," but then her face fell. "Oh, crap, no, I can't this weekend. I'm watching my niece and nephew for my brother," she bit her lip, disappointment in her eyes. "Damn."

Still unswayed, Bobby persisted. "Next weekend?"

Her smile returned, and so did that glint. "Absolutely."

**xxx**

One of the reasons Abby chose to stay in New York was so she could spend more time with her growing extended family. So when Ben asked her if she'd be willing to take care of Tommy and Megan while Ben and a heavily pregnant Kayla visited her parents for the weekend, Abby jumped at the chance.

Abby packed a light bag with a few things for the weekend, reminded Sadie to feed the stray cat that had started coming in her window, and went to her brothers house. It was the way Abby always babysat for Ben and Kayla, it was a hell of a lot easier for her to pack a small bag of clothes than to pack up two small children as well as their beds, toys, food, clothes, etc. Plus, Ben's house was gorgeous, so Abby treated it like a little holiday. A holiday where she was awakened at least once a night by one or both children, but a welcome retreat from her stingy apartment nonetheless.

After Abby dumped her bag in the guest room at her brother's, and waved off Kayla and Ben with the kids, she took the children straight to Central Park. In her experience, it was always better to distract Megan and Tommy when their parents went away so they didn't start freaking out and wondering why they'd left. At four years old, curly haired Megan was so used to Abby babysitting she barely noticed her parents gone, but Tommy was only eighteen-months-old; the distraction worked best with him.

It was late in the afternoon so the park wasn't too crowded. Abby steered the kids towards a playground where Megan immediately dashed for the swing set. Almost instantly she was chatting with another little girl, and then they clasped hands and hid under the slide speaking in whispers. Abby envied that innocence of childhood where just being in the eye line of another person made them a friend.

While Megan played, Abby and Tommy settled in the sandpit with a couple of other toddlers and began building a sandcastle. It was always a bad idea to set a drooling toddler into sand, they just wound up sticky and messy. But Tommy liked it. And if Abby didn't keep her eye on him, he also liked eating it.

Out of the corner of her eye Abby noticed a young couple walking hand in hand across the grass, and it reminded her that this time the next weekend she would be preparing for her date with Bobby. It had been a long, long while since she'd had a date. And it would be her first in New York that wasn't set up by someone else. The first three blind dates Abby had ever been on in her life also turned out to be the last three blind dates she would ever go on. It had always seemed horrible to her in theory, meeting up with someone you don't know because another party suggests it's a good idea. In practice it wasn't any better.

This date would be different, Abby knew it would be. She wasn't nervous about being out with Bobby, which was generally her main issue with dating; she could never be comfortable. But Bobby had already seen her at her very worst. Worse than her worst, when he had suspected she was involved in a murder. So caring about how she acted in front of him really wasn't at the forefront of Abby's mind; he'd been subject to her personality already.

A crowd of nattering young children wandered by half-listening to the exasperated orders of their frazzled teacher. Their giggles and laughs made Abby smile, thinking of how exciting a field trip was back when she was younger. All the children carried balloons which immediately caught Tommy's eye. Distracted from their sandcastle, he made a humming noise and pointed at them.

"Yeah, I know," Abby said trying to get him back to building. "But if I get you one you'll chomp into it like last time and freak yourself out."

Not because he was understanding his Aunt, more because the balloons were walking away, Tommy started to cry.

As the afternoon wore on, parents and nannies began rounding up children, packing bags, fare-welling each other. And thankfully for Abby, now Tommy wasn't the only toddler throwing a fit. He wasn't even the loudest. But the fussing children all seemed to feed off each other's misery, so Abby decided she, too, should take her kids home.

"Megan, come on," Abby called to the playground as she lifted a whinging Tommy onto her hip. "Time to go." Tommy blatantly refused to be put in his stroller, so Abby just held him as she wandered towards the playground equipment to get her niece. "Megan?" There were only a half dozen or so children left playing - and after a moment Abby realized that Megan wasn't one of them.

Four of the children swinging from the monkey bars were boys, and the only girl had flaming red hair and was running up the slide. Tommy grumbled and shifted in Abby's arms to be put down, but she just clung to her nephew tighter. "Megan?" Turning on the spot, Abby searched the crowd for her niece. It was late in the afternoon, everyone were beginning to pack up their children to get them home, so everyone was moving, and to Abby every flash of curly brown hair was Megan, except none of them were Megan.

Abby's heart began to thump against her chest, and her voice was making a strange, shrieking noise. "Megan!" Tommy started to wail louder the more frantic Abby became, which only made her more frantic.

Her screams drew curious glances from everyone in her vicinity, until finally one grandmother came to her side. "Is everything alright, dear?"

After doing one more scan of the dwindling crowd, Abby stared agape at the kind stranger standing in front of her. "My niece is gone."

**xxx**


	4. Slow Motion

_Mini-crossover with Law and Order: SVU, can't have a missing child case without Liv and Elliot popping up!_

**Chapter 4: Slow Motion**

"Right there," Abby pointed to the slide for the millionth time as a kind police officer who had introduced herself as Detective Olivia Benson asked Abby once again where she had last seen her niece.

Olivia made a note on her notepad and kept her voice calm. "And her parents are out of town?"

Abby nodded. "In Maine until Monday night."

"Ok," Olivia smiled kindly. "Have you called them to-"

"No!" Abby cut her off. "I will _not_ call them and tell them I lost their child." Nearby her she could hear Tommy fussing in his stroller as a young policewoman tried to entertain him with one of his toys. "I have to find her, I have to find her,"

Olivia placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "The best thing you can do right now is stay calm for your nephew," she said.

"Abby?"

"Bobby!" Abby rushed towards him as he climbed out of his car. "I lost her," she gasped as he took her by her shoulders. "I lost Megan, I lost her!"

"It's okay," Bobby folded her into his body and held her tight.

"I was just sitting there," Abby kept one arm clung around his waist and pointed to the sandpit with the other. "I was there with Tommy and she was behind me, I know she was."

Detective Benson shook hands and swapped identification with Bobby. "Maybe you could take your nephew home?" Olivia suggested.

"Home?" Abby repeated. The thought horrified her. "No, I'm _not _going home with Megan."

"Abby-" Bobby started.

"No!" Abby snapped. "No, I'm not leaving." She knew her expression was shaky at best, but she tried to look firm and not back down.

"Ok, then just come sit here for a minute," Bobby lead her to the park bench beside the policewoman watching Tommy. "Just sit and breathe alright?"

Breathing was the last thing Abby could control; she was hyperventilating so fast her head spun. "How could I lose her?" she mumbled to herself eyes darting all over the playground as if Megan would just pop up out of the grass. "I wasn't watching her, I _should_ have been watching her better."

"It was an accident," Bobby said rubbing her back between her shoulder blades. "And she's going to be fine."

Tears welled in Abby's eyes. The policewoman who was keeping an eye Tommy began to walk passed her with the stroller, but Abby stopped her. "No, I'll watch him now. It's okay." she pulled her nephew closer to her even though the policewoman was obviously concerned, but Abby saw Bobby nod to her that it was alright that they be left alone. "Hey, buddy," Abby sniffled and rearranged Tommy's hat and coat so he was warm.

"Abby, I could take you both home-" Bobby started to say.

"No, Megan doesn't know you," Abby said firmly. "She doesn't know any of these people. She'll be scared. If someone goes up to her, she'll be scared. I have to be there, I have to be here when they find her." Her mind played horrible images to her, the worst that could happen to her niece, the sick people in the world who stole children her age. "Dammit, I should have been watching her!" She slammed her palm against her forehead.

Bobby moved his hand to her shoulder and pulled her against him. She settled in the warmth of his chest; if she weren't petrified she'd find it to be calming. But all she wanted to do was run all over the city screaming Megan's name.

"Excuse me, Ms Mackenzie?" A handsome detective with sharp, piercing eyes came over and sat on Abby's other side. "I'm Detective Elliot Stabler," he nodded a hello to Bobby. "Can you tell me, did you see anyone around?"

"Of course, it's a park," Abby wiped her eyes and sniffled. "There were people everywhere."

"Can you be specific?" Detective Stabler pressed. "Men, women? Anyone acting suspiciously?"

"Ah, there were a bunch of kids in the sandpit with us," Abby said pinching the bridge of her nose. "And a bunch of kids on the playground. And nannies and parents," her nephew started yawning and fussing, so she leant forwards and started looking in the baby bag hanging off the stroller handle for Tommy's pacifier. "Couples, people jogging, usual stuff." Suddenly, Abby remembered the balloons that had distracted Tommy while they were in the sandpit. "Oh, and a class on a field trip."

Detective Stabler looked up at her, eyes narrowing. "A field trip?" He repeated.

"Yeah," Abby nodded and popped the blue pacifier in Tommy's mouth. He closed his eyes immediately, oblivious to the stress around him. "Whole bunch of kids following a teacher around in two lines. A field trip."

"On a Saturday?"

A cold rush ran over Abby's back. The significance of the day hadn't even occurred to her.

**xxx**

An hour later, Megan was found perfectly happy and well at the Holy Family church just two blocks from Central Park. During a busy day out that volunteers had organized for the children of its partitioners, Megan had just blended in with the thirty or so other children on the walk back to the church. She even acquired herself a balloon and was completely bewildered as to why her Aunt Abby was in such a frantic state when she came to get her.

It felt like days or weeks later, but it was only eight in the evening when Abby arrived home with both children. She'd only been out for a few hours, but she was exhausted. Bobby had walked home with them pushing Tommy's stroller so Abby could keep a tight grasp on Megan's hand.

Even after she fed the children and put them both to bed after a long day, Abby was still tense. "She doesn't even know," Abby said quietly from Megan's doorway. Her niece was sound asleep, curled up in a ball surrounded by her stuffed animal collection. "She has no idea what happened. For her it was just a fun day out."

"Kids are like that," Bobby said, he'd stayed with her perhaps sensing her anxiety and stress.

Across the hall, Abby peered into the nursery. Tommy was asleep, too, sucking contentedly on his pacifier as the mobile above him circled miniature stars and planets to the hum of a soft lullaby. Pulling the door half-closed, Abby walked out of earshot of the children's rooms down the hall with Bobby behind her. "God," she sighed and ran her hands through her hair, resting her head back against the wall. "I'll have to tell Ben, won't I? That I lost his first born?"

"Or that you found his first born," Bobby suggested leaning against the wall opposite her. "And pretty damn fast."

"Thanks to you," Abby pointed out. "No way I would have had two detectives out there so fast if I didn't know you," her brow furrowed and she pursed her lips together. "I think I'll leave the multiple-detective part out when I tell Ben and Kayla, though..."

"Yeah, good idea."

"He lost me once when we were kids," Abby recalled. "I don't remember, but he does. He said it makes him more diligent with his own kids now; always has to be able to see them," she stared down at her feet. "I thought I was the same. I mean, I used to do this for a living. Kids aren't new to me, babysitting isn't something I just picked up for fun," she rolled her eyes to herself. "I should have been paying more attention."

"It was an accident," Bobby told her. "Happens to everyone. And it's over. Megan's safe. Tommy's safe. And you still have your sanity."

"Doubtful." Abby smirked, and her eyes caught Bobby's. And held his gaze. "Again, thank you. For coming when I called, and keeping so calm, and keeping me calm. Well, _calmer_," she added. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Pushing up off the wall, Abby hugged him. Even without his jacket he was still as cosy as he had been on the park bench, and his warmth cascaded over Abby as his arms enveloped her. She leant into his chest, and he was tall enough that his cheek rested against the top of her head. And now, as she had thought she might have earlier, she did feel calm.

A spark of electricity rippled through the heat across Abby's body as their lips met. Bobby's mouth was warm, his lips were soft, and as she moved her hands to his face she felt the slight stubble of his chin. Abby held her mouth to his for a moment, then tilted her head and deepened their kiss, moving her hands around his neck. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach him and even then he was almost lifting her off the ground, but not once did he stop her.

Then he did lift her up and held her as she cinched her legs around his waist. His hands held the small of her back, his fingers roaming underneath her shirt and sending shivers up her spine. Abby kissed him harder and he responded by leaning her against the wall and pressing himself completely against her. His hands were sliding across the outside of her thighs when the phone started to ring, abruptly waking Tommy in the process.

Breaking their embrace, Abby reluctantly let Bobby set her down and, flushed and distracted, she answered the normal call she would expect from her brother at that time of night. After she told him the kids were fine but Tommy had awakened, she hung up and went to tend to her nephew. He was tired enough that just some gentle rubbing on his tummy put him back to sleep. By the time Abby found Bobby in the kitchen, the heat from their encounter was long gone and replaced with the weariness of the day.

"Saturday," Bobby said, slipping his jacket back on.

"Saturday," Abby nodded and smiled and followed him to the front door. She pecked a kiss to his cheek just before he left and then kept grinning to herself long after she'd locked up. Saturday was their date, and Abby knew it was going to be a good one.

**xxx**


End file.
